Henry's Father
by Charmed Dark Alias
Summary: What would have happened if Emma told Henry the truth about his father when he asked instead of telling him a story about the fireman.
1. Chapter 1

**What would have happened is Emma had told the truth to Henry about his father?**

**This story is set during episode 9 in season 1 'True North', when Emma is looking for Hansel and Gretel's (Ava and Nicholas) father and Henry asks about his father.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time**

I started to wonder ever since I met Ava and Nicholas, and the search for their father had begun, wonder about my own father.

Who is he?

How did he and Emma met?

Does he know about me?

What happened between his father an Emma?

And Had he ever tried to find me?

Were the questions that kept rolling around in my head. I had made up my mind, I would ask Emma about him I wanted to know the truth and I hoped that she would be kind enough to give it to me, even if it was painful for her. I resolved to ask her about him the next time we were alone together.

My chance came sooner then I thought it would, she was sitting in the sheriff's station going through files trying to figure out who Ava and Nicholas's father could possibly be, when I saw my opportunity.

"Emma I was wondering about my father, who was he?" I could see that she was shocked by my question it had obliviously thrown her that I had asked it. The shock finally wore off her face as she relaxed back into her chair and faced me.

"Kid, you sure you want to hear this, it isn't really the happiest story?" I thought it over I knew it wouldn't be that happy considering I knew she had given birth to me whilst in jail. But still I needed to hear it, so I sat up on the desk she was sitting at and nodded to her.

"Alright then, what do you want to know kid?" I thought about it for a moment before turning her and just saying "everything" almost a little bit too cheerily then I probably should have.

"His name was Neal, Neal Cassidy. He was a very daring man who had ways of bringing down all the walls I had built from my time in the foster system. I first met him when I found my yellow bug for the first time." Emma smiled slightly at the memory, which comforted Henry knowing at least his parents were happy for a time. "Neal was asleep in the back seat of the car and I didn't realize until a couple of minutes after I started driving down the road, it turned out I had stolen a stolen car."

I gave a slight giggle at the thought of Emma realizing that the car she had stolen was already stolen and there was someone asleep in the back seat of the car. But I did start to wonder about how this would be a sad story because so far it seemed pretty funny, not that stealing is funny or anything.

"After that first car ride we got to talking after he convinced me to get a drink with him and we found put we had quite a bit in common, including absent parents. So we kind of became partners, robbing convince stores sneaking into motel rooms. But we never robbed for money only ever for food, we found money for gas elsewhere"

Emma paused for a moment and just looked at me with that sideways sad smile of her, that when I knew the next part would be the sad part.

"One day, the day after we had decided to settle down and go to Tallahassee Neal found a wanted poster of himself in the post office. Apparently before I had met him, he had stolen a bunch of watches from a high end jewellery place that in total cost up to twenty thousand dollars. He started talking about going to Canada and hiding there by himself. I told him I loved him for the first time that day right before I talked him into letting me go get the watches from where he had hidden them, at a train station, so we could fence them and go to Tallahassee together like we planned."

Emma looked down at her hands for a moment and sighed before looking back up at me and sighing again, before continuing.

"I got the watches like we planned and after meeting giving them to him and agreeing to meet later that night after he had seen the fencer. But instead of meeting me a cop turned up that said that Neal had made a tip to the cops saying that I had taken the watches from the train station. I was arrested and sentenced to 11 months jail. The last time I had any sort of contact from him was when an envelope arrived for me, it was the keys to the bug with the key ring he got me on them. That was also the day I found out I was pregnant with you"

I looked down at her from my spot on her desk and watched her face, it was oblivious that this story upset her. That is how I know she told the truth that was the real story about my father and not something that is made up. It was in that moment that I realized that she was nothing like Regina.

I jumped down from the desk and wrapped my arms around Emma.

"Thank you for telling me the truth." She turned around in my arms and gave me a tight hug back.


	2. Meeting Baefire Neal

**Back again but this time it the story is set during episode 14 of season 2 'Manhattan', just after Emma comes back after chasing down Neal/ Baelfire and talking to him in the pub. Up in Neal's apartment right after Neal bursts in.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ounce Upon A Time**

"Don't hurt her!" I could hear someone burst in the door of the apartment and yell that. Emma had told me to go to the bathroom but I was sick of everybody trying to hide things from me. I wanted to know what was going on.

"Bae" I heard Mr Gold whisper, he almost sounded like he was in pain, which is a side I thought I would never see of Mr Gold. I could hear Mr Gold take a step toward the middle of the room. "You came back for me"

"No, I came to make sure you didn't hurt her ... I've seen what you do to people who break deals" I could just hear Bae whisper. I wish they could talk louder it is making it really hard to eavesdrop on them when they are all whispering.

"Please Bae just let me talk " strained to hear from my hiding place, it sounded as if Mr Gold was almost pleading with his son. It made me feel a little sorry for him.

"I have no interest in talking to you, you can go" finally someone has learned how to use their normal talking voice.

"I'm not going anywhere" now if I could just get Mr Gold to do the same it could make this whole eavesdropping thing much easier.

"Get out of my apartment!" Well that made me jump, Bae or whoever he is in this world really doesn't want to talk to his father. I wish I had paid more attention to their story now, maybe I could understand what was going on a bit easier.

"Neal" I could hear Emma say as I heard her take a couple of steps toward the middle of the room. Could it really be, could Baelfire really be my father, could this really be the man that left Emma and made her go to jail for him. No it couldn't be, could it?

"Emma I got this" Bae's voice softened slightly when he spoke to her, I could hear it in his voice. I doubt that he would talk to someone that he just met that way, especially someone who brought the father that he had been running from for almost a lifetime to him.

"You too know each other" I think Mr Gold just came to the same conclusion that I did. "You two know each other, how?" this time Mr Gold said it louder.

"You sent me chasing after him" I could hear Emma say as she started to speak louder as well. But she said it almost defensively almost as if she was trying to hide something.

"No,No, No stop it your lying how do you two know each other?" Mr Gold was yelling now . I didn't want to pretend that I hadn't heard everything later, so I made up my mind and walked into the main room.

"Mum" For the first time I saw him, I saw Baelfire/ Neal according to Emma, But was it really the Neal that had abandoned her. "What's going on?" I decided not to tell them just ye,t that I had been listening to their whole conversation. I walked over to Emma and she grabbed both of shoulders, it was almost as if she was trying to brace herself on me as she looked into my eyes. In the background I could hear give a soft "huh" and take a step back.

"Who is this? " Baefire asked Emma but I had an inkling that he already knew the answer.

"My son" which in my opinion was kind of stating the obvious considering that I had walked into the room and called her Mum. But I could tell Emma was getting a little anxious because she only throw a quick glance at Baefire when she answered him and was grabbing up and down my arms. It all kind of felt like she was silently telling me that she needed me and I was about to need her.

"What" it sounded almost like a gasp coming out of Baefires mouth then an actual word. I turned my head toward him and for the first time got a proper look at him. He was tall but only a little taller then Emma. His face was long and he had thick hair small eyes and slight stubble above his upper lip. He wore more layers then I could count.

"This is Baefire" was all I seemed to be able to say as I turned my head back to Emma. Even though I know it was obvious Baefire was the only one that knew we were here and this is his apartment and the man said earlier get out of my apartment. But I didn't say the one thing I wanted to, is this Neal?

"Henry , I think you and I better give these two time to talk" She gathered me to her side and we started walking toward the door of the apartment.

"How... How old are you?" Baelfire called just after we passed him, which made Emma pull me even closer to her side.

"Don't answer him" Emma said into my ear as she hurried us toward the door even more.

"How old are you kid?" This time Baelfire was yelling and I knew that if we didn't answer him he would just chase us down like Emma did to him until one of answered. I didn't want to put Emma through that considering his presence obliviously worried her.

"Eleven!" I yelled back as I spun both me and Emma around to face Baelfire. I knew what was coming; I knew the next question he would ask. I would be there for Emma, the way my father wasn't because I knew how much he had hurt her, and for the emotion she showed when telling me their story and the amount she was showing now.

"He is eleven" there was that gasping almost airy voice again, it was one of disbelief and shock. He just starred at Emma with shock all over his face. I looked back up to her , she had this mortified and sad look on her face. I didn't say anything I just stood there in front of Emma. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mr Gold roll his head in disbelief, looks like he just figured out what was going on.

"Is this my son?" Baelfire asked Emma, he had this scrunched up look on his face as if he was concentrating really hard on something. I took a step back into Emma so my back was pressed up to her stomach.

"Is this...my son?" Baelfire started moving from one foot to the other and turned his head sidewise slightly when he asked the second time. It was as if he already knew the answer but was just fishing for confirmation. I pulled Emma's arms around me; it was the only way I could think of to comfort her, without saying anything.

I felt Emma's arms wrap tighter around me slightly as she whispered a single word that seemed to hung is the air for a moment as everyone processed it.

"Yes"

Baelfires/ Neal hands went up to his mouth as if he was praying, but there was nothing spiritual about the way he turned on the spot. I couldn't help thinking that maybe this wouldn't be such a shock to him if he had bothered to contact Emma over the past eleven years or maybe hadn't got her sent to jail.

I looked up at Emma there was a look on her face that I couldn't quite tell what she was feeling, her walls had gone up and she had become expressionless. She looked back down at me and a tried to give her a reassuring smile to which she returned.

The silence went on and I could see that Mr Gold was now getting anxious. We had come here to reunite him with his son and yet somehow ended up revealing my father. I couldn't take the silence any longer, so I unwrapped myself from Emma's arms grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the window near where Mr Gold was standing. I climbed through the window and onto the fire escape to which Emma followed me onto. We went up to the next flight of stairs and sat there together.

I could hear the conversation that Mr Gold and Baelfire were having by the window as I wondered what I should say to Emma.

"Baelfire please, please all I want is a chance to be heard" Mr Gold pleaded.

"Get out" Baelfire said firmly.

"Look you came back to protect Emma, to show that she had lived up to her end of her bargain with me" Mr Gold tried to reason.

"Which she has so you can go" Baelfire said softly.

"No, our deal was for her to get you to talk to me, if you truly want her deal with me to be fulfilled then you have but one choice... You have to talk to me" Mr Gold continued to plead with his son.

"You've got three minutes" Baelfire said very firmly.

I turned to Emma who had been watching me ever since we sat down, I think she was trying to gauge my reaction to meeting or talking to my father for the first time. She had this look of worry on her face though which I couldn't quite figure out.

"Thank you Emma, thank you for telling me the truth about him when I asked. " It was the only thing I could think of to say to her, in those moments in the apartment she had truly proven to me that she was nothing like Regina.

"That is alright Henry, the need to know the truth about your parents is something I know very well. I couldn't lie to you not over that." As Emma spoke you could hear the confidence coming back into her voice. "Henry, you know it is completely up to you what you want to do about him, whether you want to go back to Storybrooke without him or get to know him it is completely up to you. I just ask that you not shut me out."

"I won't I promise" I turned to her and gave her a big hug. "But I don't know what I want, Can I think about it for a bit?" I honestly didn't know if I ever wanted to talk to anyone who had hurt someone I care about so much but the allure of knowing my father was very strong.

"Of course Henry, you take as much time as you want." Emma said earnestly.


End file.
